ArticleBMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation2025
Exploring the impact of physical exercise regimens on health-related quality of life following oesophageal or gastric cancer surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Article in BMC sports science, medicine & rehabilitation, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Health-related quality of life in esophageal cancer: a state-of-the-art review of patient-reported outcomes and an evidence and gap map.Diseases of the esophagus : official journal of the International Society for Diseases of the Esophagus · 2025Pooled it
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeTo assess the effectiveness and adverse events of postoperative physical exercise on health-related quality of life (HRQL) in patients who have undergone surgery for oesophageal or gastric cancer.
methodsWe conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis and reported it according to the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. (PRISMA) guidelines. Randomised controlled trials (RCT) that investigated HRQL factors following physical exercise interventions in patients undergoing oesophageal or gastric cancer surgery were included. Studies including participants who had undergone oesophagectomy or gastrectomy for cancer, of either sex and were 18 years or older were included. Participants with other cancers were excluded. Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, PEDro, and trial registries were searched for studies from inception until February 2025. Results were synthesised using meta-analyses. Two independent reviewers assessed the risk of bias using the Cochrane risk of bias tool 2.0, and the grading of recommendations assessment, development and evaluation (GRADE) was used to evaluate the overall certainty of the evidence. PROSPERO ID CRD42022358493.
resultsThree studies enrolling 284 patients undergoing oesophagectomy were included, of which two were assessed at high risk of bias and one at some concerns. The global quality of life score from the European Organisation for Research and Rreatment of Cancer (EORTC) quality of life questionnaire Cancer QLQ-C30 was used to assess HRQL in all the included studies. The score ranges from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating a better HRQL. Physical exercise therapy had no discernible impact on HRQL compared to the control group (mean difference 0.77 [95% CI -4.36, 5.90]. However, the quality of evidence was very low, which should be considered when interpreting the results as they can differ substantially from the true effects.
conclusionWe found a significant lack of information about the effects of post-surgery physical exercise compared to standard care in patients who have undergone oesophagectomy or gastrectomy for cancer. Based on the current very low certainty evidence, the effectiveness on HRQL and the safety of postoperative physical exercise in patients treated with oesophagectomy for cancer is uncertain. We found no studies investigating gastric cancer and exercise.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.